


i'll always be there catching you

by CycloneRachel



Category: Batwoman (TV 2019), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Batwoman Season 2 spoilers, Crossover, Gen, One Shot, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29014653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CycloneRachel/pseuds/CycloneRachel
Summary: "You really believe Kate's dead? You know better than anyone that no body means there's still hope."~Just one of the ways Kate could have survived, with a little help from some (super) friends.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Kate Kane, Kara Danvers & Querl Dox
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	i'll always be there catching you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elektra_1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elektra_1/gifts).



> so first of all this was inspired by my lovely friend Elektra! Thank you for this idea, you gave me permission to do a fic of it a week ago and now it's finally done. I hope it was worth the wait, or at least that it's okay.
> 
> Also shoutout to my friends Brandi and Lex, who also helped inspire this. Thank you as well!

It started with the phone call.

“…Yeah, my apartment’s got room for you to stay overnight. Why? You have enough money to afford any hotel room in the city, and you want to sleep on _my_ couch?”

“…Well, if you do sleep in my apartment, I’ll take the couch, and you can take my bed. Unless you sleep upside down, like a real bat…”

“…Yes, I’m kidding, Kate…”

“…Really? You want to take the couch?”

“…Any preference for takeout? I know you’re vegan, so…”

“Don’t worry, the weather here is more like Gotham’s than you’d think. You’ll feel right at home. And if you want to schedule a longer trip, sometime, that would be fine with me too.”

“Alright, see you soon!”

Kara hung up the phone, not remembering until then that Brainy had been listening.

Since he’d been found, his recovery had been nothing short of miraculous- but it hadn’t been easy, at the beginning. For one, he had insisted on taking Lex down himself, and he’d succeeded… only for him to practically faint into Kara’s arms once he finished, and finally let her and the rest of the team take care of him.

For Kara, watching him slowly grow stronger, becoming more like his uninhibited self that she’d wanted to get to know, it had been weeks of long nights by his bedside, praying to Rao for his safety and listening to his heartbeat, making sure it was still going. But after he was out of the anti-radiation suit, things only got better, and though it was an equally difficult process to begin working with the others again, that was improving as well.

And, of course, for Querl she knew it was even worse. But she had made sure he knew how much of a hero he was, how much she owed him- and that, acting as a double agent, doing what needed to be done, he hadn’t done anything wrong.

(She was right. But Querl appreciated her, and her empathy, and her words to him were once again like magic, offering him more strength as he recovered the same)

(And he’d let her hug him, for what she realized was the first time since he’d decided to stay in the twenty-first century)

So when Kara finished talking to Kate Kane, one of Querl’s (post-Crisis) memories crystallized- of standing inside the New Gotham City heroes’ museum, looking up at a statue of the woman who, like him, had spent some of her superhero career as a pariah. But that never stopped her from doing what was right… that was, until said career was cut short.

And, though Kara couldn’t know about it right then, he knew he would have to help her with something soon, and that whatever she was planning wouldn’t end the way she wanted.

(In fact, if he didn’t tell her, she might not have known for a long time.)

“Kara?” he asked. “Could you take me to the Legion cruiser, tomorrow?”

Kara nodded, and agreed- while Querl made preparations, knowing he would need her help with this as well.

~

Everything was going according to plan.

The next day, Kate Kane arrived in National City, to ask Kara if she could destroy the piece of Kryptonite entrusted to her during the Crisis, and Kara took Querl to his secondary Legion cruiser, which he put into stealth mode and flew to Gotham City, where it hovered over the river Kate’s plane was due to crash into when she flew home the next night.

He’d asked Kara to update him, pretending that he simply wanted to take the night off and spend time by himself in the Legion cruiser for a while (which she had approved of), and told her to tell Kate to leave the Bat-suit in overhead storage when she got on the plane. According to Kara, Kate had been confused by the specificity of such a request, but had agreed that it was safer if she wasn’t discovered wearing the Bat-suit while going through the Gotham airport’s metal detectors, and if the costume was in her luggage, it could be assumed as just a costume instead of the real suit.

Then he had waited. And at 10:45 at night, he called Kara, and told him to join him in Gotham, aboard the Legion cruiser.

Minutes before the crash, she was there, and the ship sank beneath the river.

At 10:50, it was time- the plane crashed, and before Kate could drown, Querl retrieved her, while Kara watched him take her now-unconscious (and badly injured, going by a quick X-ray) friend to a healing tank.

“You… are awfully calm about this.” She said, as Querl carried Kate in, set the communication device on her forehead. “Did you… was this supposed to happen? It was, wasn’t it?”

Querl nodded, as Kara rushed to Kate’s side, helping him lift her body into the tank. He set it up, watching as the water covered her, illuminating her just like Kara had almost three Christmases ago.

“On this day, at ten-fifty P.M., according to the records… Flight GC9K23 is sabotaged by one Safiyah Sohail, and to put it lightly… Kate Kane disappears from the timeline.” He said. “I apologize that I could not tell you- but together, we can figure out what to do next.”

“I get it. So… you want to talk to her, right?” Kara answered, reassuringly. “I mean, waking up in my mind-prison… it was pretty freaky. Even if it was comfortable, at first…”

“Right, yes- _you_ will talk to her.” Querl said. “I figured that since you know Kate better, you could assist her as well- specifically in that area.”

“It would be better for her to wake up and see a trusted friend.” Kara said. “I mean- not that you’re not, but…”

“Yes. That was the point.”

Kara looked up at Kate- wondering what else she could have said to her, or done with her, if she knew she was supposed to disappear. She would’ve certainly invited her to the Danvers family Hanukkah party, assuming it wasn’t interrupted by the universe being wiped out of existence again. She would’ve shown her more of National City, introduced her to everyone properly outside of just texts and some pictures. She would have gone to Gotham, met Earth-1’s Luke Fox and Kate’s sister Mary.

But then again, they had also had all the time in the world together, meeting another Earth’s Batman, regrouping with the other paragons in the Vanishing Point. And that had been a different kind of bonding altogether.

“Wait.” She said, suddenly taking Brainy’s hands in hers. “I have an idea.”

~

“Kate Kane, Bat of the Future… welcome to the thirty-first century.”


End file.
